Growing Through Adversity

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WORRY DOESN’T HELP; IT DOES THE OPPOSITE

Look at the birds of the air;
they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?
Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

—Matthew 6:26–27

GRATEFUL FOR MY CHANCE TO GROW

Sky above me Earth below me
flying swirling through the all
seeds of love are growing in me
all of nature blooms along
grace and joy I am unfolding
grateful for my chance to grow

—Lizabeth Gottsegen

This post is an excerpt from Prayers for Calm by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon.

Peace and Miracles Abound

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TELL GOD WHAT YOU NEED

Don’t worry about anything,
instead pray about everything.
Tell God what you need,
and thank him for all he has done.

If you do this, you will experience God’s peace,
which is far more wonderful
than the human mind can understand.
His peace will guard your hearts and minds
as you live in Christ Jesus.

—Philippians 4:4–7

PAY ATTENTION SO YOU DON’T MISS THE MIRACLES

By some incredible miracle,
the vast ocean of time has borne me up
to its crest for this miniscule moment.
I look around, revel in all that I see,
feel the spray in my face,
elated by the majesty,
the enormity of creation,
grateful beyond belief to be alive.

—Hal French

This post is an excerpt from Prayers for Calm by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon.

GOD UNROLLS THE CANVAS

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My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He weaveth steadily.
Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas
And reveal the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
He knows, He loves, He cares;
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives the very best to those
Who leave the choice to Him.

—Florence May Alt

This post is an excerpt from Prayers for Calm by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon.

Learning in Patience

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PATIENT ENDURANCE

No pain that we suffer,
no trial that we experience is wasted.
It ministers to our education,
to the development of such qualities as patience,
faith, fortitude, and humility.
All that we suffer and all that we endure,
especially when we endure it patiently,
builds up our characters, purifies our hearts,
expands our souls,
and makes us more tender and charitable,
more worthy to be called the children of God.

—Orson F. Whitney

SIMPLY DO THIS

Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are
and what God is; all concepts you have learned
about the world; all images you hold about yourself.

Empty your mind of everything it thinks
is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges
worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed.

Hold onto nothing.

Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught,
nor one belief you ever learned before from anything.
Forget this world, forget this course, and come
with wholly empty hands unto your God.

—A Course in Miracles

This post is an excerpt from Prayers for Calm by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon.

Love and Be True

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MAY ALL YOUR PRAYERS BE ANSWERED

May God give you…
For every storm, a rainbow
For every tear, a smile
For every case, a promise
And a blessing
In each trial
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share
For every sigh a sweet song
And an answer
For each prayer.

—Irish prayer

DARE TO LOVE AND BE TRUE

I’m not trying to counsel any of you
to do anything really special
except to dare to think,
and to dare to go with the truth,
and to dare to really love completely.

—Buckminster Fuller

This post is an excerpt from Prayers for Calm by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon.

Power for Good

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CULTIVATE YOURSELF FULLY

To put the world right in order,
we must first put the nation in order;

To put the nation in order,
we must first put the family in order;

To put the family in order,
we must first cultivate our personal life;

We must first set our hearts right.

—Confucius

BE PRESENT TO THE LIFE YOU HAVE

In a true you-and-I relationship, we are present mindfully, non-intrusively, the way we are present with things in nature. We do not tell a birch tree it should be more like an elm. We face it with no agenda, only an appreciation that becomes participation: “I love looking at this birch,” becomes “I am this birch,” and then, “I and this birch are opening to a mystery that transcends and holds us both.”

—David Richo

TRUST YOUR HIGHEST POWER

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly
where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and
pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your
soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
Amen.

—Minnie Louise Haskins, The Desert, 1908

CREATE TRANQUILITY IN YOUR LIFE

The more tranquil a man becomes,
the greater is his success,
his influence, his power for good.
Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.

—James Allen

This post is an excerpt from Prayers for Calm by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon.

Each Day is Precious

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EACH DAY IS A PRECIOUS GIFT; USE IT WELL

This is the beginning of a new day.
I can waste it or use it for good.
What I do today is important because I am
exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever,
leaving in its place something I have traded for it.
I want it to be a gain, not a loss;
good, not evil;
success, not failure—
in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it today.

—Jaya Khan

EVERYTHING WILL BE NEW AGAIN

As he sat by the river,
the eyes of his understanding began to be opened;
not that he saw any vision,
but he understood and learnt many things,
both spiritual matters and matters of faith and of scholarship,
and this with so great an enlightenment
that everything seemed new to him.

—Ignatius of Loyola

THE STORM WILL PASS

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime.
Never make a negative decision in the low time.
Never make your most important decisions
when you are in your worst moods.
Wait. Be patient.
The storm will pass.
The spring will come.

—Robert H. Schuller

This post is an excerpt from Prayers for Calm by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon.

Strength to Survive

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KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONE

All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right,
And emptiness above—
Know that you aren’t alone.
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.

—Vikram Seth

YOU WON’T FEEL THIS WAY FOREVER

That’s how you stay alive.
When it hurts so much you can’t breathe,
that’s how you survive.
By remembering that,
one day, somehow, impossibly,
you won’t feel this way.
It won’t hurt this much.

—Grey’s Anatomy

ETERNAL LOVE FOR ALL IN THE WORLD

For as long as space endures
And for as long as living beings remain
Until then may I too abide
To dispel the misery of the world.

—Shantideva

This post is an excerpt from Prayers for Calm by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon.

THE OPTIMIST’S CREED

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To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.

To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

—Christian D. Larson, 1912

This post is an excerpt from Prayers for Calm by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon.

Faith in Ourselves

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“We have to have faith in ourselves.”

—Cynthia Heimel, humorist writer with a focus on feminism

“I represent the healthy, happy, curvy, strong woman. And that sounds much healthier to me than being eighty pounds and skinny as a bean.”

—Heidi Klum, model, producer, and businesswoman

“You can only decide how you’re going to live now.”

—Joan Baez, musician and activist who made beautiful folk music that touched on social justice, energizing the political music scene of the sixties and seventies

“The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within: strength, courage, dignity.”

—Ruby Dee, actress, playwright, and civil rights activist who during her lifetime used her presence on and off stage to talk about relevant issues

“You are all you will ever have for certain.”

—June Havoc, award-winning singer and stage director

“I don’t need easy, I just need possible.”

—Bethany Hamilton, shark attack survivor and award-winning competitive surfer

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.